A Literature Review of Moral Licensing Theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62051/ijgem.v10n7.07Keywords:
Moral licensing theory, Moral credits model, Moral credentials model, Moderating variablesAbstract
This paper reviews moral licensing theory by examining its origin, development, core concepts, theoretical models, moderating variables, applications, and future trends. The theory originated in early research on moral psychology. Early studies focused on social discrimination, and later research extended the theory to multiple domains. Its core idea is that prior moral behavior may create a psychological tendency to relax moral constraints in subsequent behavior. This review also discusses the theory's explanatory models, forms of licensing, extended research fields, and future directions, with the aim of deepening understanding of the decision-making mechanisms underlying human moral behavior.
Downloads
References
[1] Li, G., & Zhou, H., Ding, R. Y. (2013). The effect of moral self-regulation on prosocial behavior and transgressive behavior. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 45(6), 672–679.
[2] Shi, W. (2011). A review of moral licensing research. Advances in Psychological Science, 19(8), 1233–1241. (In Chinese)
[3] Effron, D. A., & Cameron, J. S., & Monin, B. (2009). Endorsing Obama licenses favoring whites. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(3), 590–593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.12.003
[4] McConahay, J. B., & Batts, V. (1981). Has racism declined in America? It depends on who is asking and what is asked. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 25(4), 563–579. https://doi.org/1177/0022002781025004002
[5] Effron, D. A., & Monin, B. (2010). Letting people off the hook: When do good deeds excuse transgressions? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(12), 1618–1634. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167210385640
[6] Khan, U., & Dhar, R. (2006). Licensing effect in consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 259–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224370604300206
[7] Shi, Z. M., & Zhang, C. Y. (2023). Why do consumers fall into the green consumption trap? The impact of green consumption on overconsumption. Nankai Business Review, 26(2), 17–26. (In Chinese)
[8] Guan, T., & Kang, H. H. (2017). Why do employees do ‘good’ first and ‘bad’ later? A theoretical framework based on moral licensing. Foreign Economics & Management, 39(6), 98–113. https://doi.org/10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2017.06.008 (In Chinese)
[9] Stone, T. H., & Cooper, W. H. (2009). Emerging credits. The Leadership Quarterly, (5). https://doi.org/1016/j.leaqua.2009.05.004
[10] Liu, T. T. (2018). The process from citizenship behavior to constructive deviance [Master’s thesis]. Huazhong University of Science and Technology. (In Chinese)
[11] Huang, P. F. (2023). The negative impact mechanism of employee volunteer service behavior: The mediating roles of moral credits and moral credentials [Master’s thesis]. Zhejiang Gongshang University. https://doi.org/10.27462/d.cnki.ghzhc.2023.001133 (In Chinese)
[12] Conway, P., & Peetz, J. (2012). When does feeling moral actually make you a better person? Conceptual abstraction moderates whether past moral deeds motivate consistency or compensatory behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(7), 907–919. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167212441243
[13] Gneezy, A., Imas, A., Brown, A., et al. (2012). Paying to be nice: Consistency and costly prosocial behavior. Management Science, 58(1), 179–187. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1110.1437
[14] Wu, B., Li, D. J., & Wang, C. Y. (2016). The psychological mechanism of green consumption based on moral identity theory. Advances in Psychological Science, 24(12), 1829–1843. (In Chinese)
[15] He, P. X., Zhou, H., & Wu, M. Y., et al. (2023). The influence mechanism of employees’ helping behavior on silence behavior from the perspective of moral licensing theory. Chinese Journal of Management, 20(5), 695–704. (In Chinese)
[16] Zhang, B. N., & Xu, S. Y. (2024). Good people can also do bad things: The moral credits effect of helping behavior. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 32(3), 666–670, 605. https://doi.org/10.16128/j.cnki.1005-3611.2024.03.032 (In Chinese)
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Global Economics and Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
